Hyderabad: Amid allegations of private medical colleges blocking postgraduate seats, Director of Medical Education (DME) K Ramesh Reddy on Friday stated that no seat had been lost to students.
The DME, along with Dr B. Karunakar Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), and Director of Public Health Dr G. Srinivasa Rao was addressing the media over the seat blocking issue.
Dr Ramesh Reddy said a discrepancy had come to light when they contacted five high-ranking candidates who had chosen a PG seat during counselling on March 16. "We were shocked to find that these five candidates had even applied for a seat."
Dr Karunakar Reddy said that on becoming aware of the issue, letters were written to the five students stating that the university would take legal action against them if they were found guilty of blocking seats.
The students had submitted their certificates. The university then brought the issue to the notice of the Warangal police commissioner, with the names of 40 students suspected of blocking seats. The commissioner directed officers to register a case and start investigations.
The VC said students were directed to personally come to the university with their documents to register themselves.
Following this, two rankers who taken admission in colleges in the state wrote to the varsity saying that they had not applied to the colleges. This incident too was reported to the police.
Dr Ramesh Reddy said to prevent seat blocking, the Centre had increased the penalty for withdrawing after choosing a seat from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.
In seat blocking, a candidate who has secured a high rank chooses a seat in a private college in another state, and withdraws after the last round of counselling by paying the penalty. The private college is able to fill that seat under the management quota category, for which it can charge as much as Rs 70 lakh to Rs 80 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Democratic Student Union (PDSU) has demanded that the state government deregister the private medical colleges and book criminal cases on those who blocked postgraduate seats. It demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge into the multi-crore scam which it said is repeated every year.
The PDSU demanded that the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) should reschedule the counselling process.
The ABVP held a dharna in front of the Directorate of Medical Education office and said that the CBCID should investigate the alleged seat blocking scandal and deregister the medical colleges involved. University officials who complained to the police should answer why the names of the private colleges, the ABVP said and wanted the colleges should be disclosed immediately.
